This invention relates to automated food preparation equipment and, more particularly, to machinery for the preparation of foods wrapped in flat bread or dough-like edible material.
Previous attempts to automate the preparation of certain foods which include an edible dough or flat bread-like outer covering wrapped around a filler have not been totally successful. The high volume preparation of foods such as burritos and the like for sale as frozen or refrigerated "convenience" dishes relys, for the most part, on human labor to wrap, roll or fold the outer covering around the filler material of such foods.
The burrito presents particular problems in that the finished product must be folded more than once about fold lines extending at right angles to each other. To applicant's knowledge automated equipment capable of adequately performing the difficult multiple folds required to form a burrito has, until now, been nonexistent. The manual labor used for the fold operation has added to the expense of these products and has inherently created inconsistencies in the quality of the finished product.